by Jarret Liotta
WESTPORT — I’m too heartbroken to be glib about the woman who was struck in the crosswalk on the Post Road downtown on Thursday afternoon. It’s a disgusting and unnecessary accident symptomatic of the chaos fueled by the stupid, selfish, short-sighted, cellphone-staring times we live in!
I don’t know all the details — honestly, I don’t want to know them. I know this woman was trying to get across that ridiculous speedway that cuts through our downtown. She was apparently in the actual crosswalk when a car ripped through one of the two lanes heading west and pummeled her, at least according to a second-hand account I heard.
She was on the ground screaming until the ambulance came and took her away.
Simply Out of Control
As much as this story terrifies me, it doesn’t surprise me. I know firsthand it’s a miracle it doesn’t happen more often.
I walk all the time, all hours … Literally in the past two months I’ve seen cars driving the wrong way up Main Street, the wrong way around Parker-Harding Plaza right in the stretch along the river, and the wrong way on Taylor Place … I’ve constantly seen that literally every third or fourth driver that passes me is looking down at — or actually writing on — their phone …
I see so many people drive through so many lights that have been bright red for more than two or three seconds … and on a regular basis I’ve seen so many cars speed through that very Post Road East crosswalk outside Barnes & Nobles where this tragedy took place, despite there even being a red light hanging over it or people trying to walk across …
Pedestrian Vigils
Last November in Fairfield I attended a gathering for the World Day of Remembrance — a memorial and awareness event for pedestrians and bicyclers maimed or killed by motor vehicles. It was a horrendous slap of enlightenment to talk to family members whose parents or children had been victims. It sucked!
While I sincerely identify with and appreciate the sympathy garnered for gun-violence victims, closer to home I think we’d serve our community really well if we took ample pause for vigils or awareness-raising events highlighting pedestrian safety — in particular a specific acknowledgement of local events and people whose very lives have been changed by these sadly unnecessary events.
While numbers weren’t immediately available, I know in recent years there have been several ugly incidents … A couple of years ago there was a pedestrian fatality on Bulkley Avenue — a young man who was walking along the road in daylight was hit and killed … I think there was at least one more on the Post Road near Stop & Shop … There’ve been other pedestrians in that area, too, trying to use the Post Road crosswalks who have been hit … I also remember on Bridge Street a few years back there was at least one pedestrian hit by a car in what was a faded crosswalk …
Please to Pause
As a community, have we ever given adequate pause to the pain caused by these incidents, to the people, right in our town? Have we tried to leverage them into some kind of meaningful example for the young people who have learned to drive completely distracted, who are leaving Staples High School on any given day and putting lives at risk? And their parents too? Perhaps all of us?
I’ll be honest, I have much less sympathy for the idiot bikers who race around town in their comical tight pants and wannabe gear and thwart the traffic laws themselves like mosquito pests, speeding through red lights, etc., and living out their weird French & Italian athletic fantasies …
But there are others — the walkers, families trying to amble along overcrowded roads on their bikes … and in the downtown area there’s just all the rest of us trying to shop, work … get across that damned Post Road … Hoping not to be hit …
Sadly, we probably won’t be having a vigil anytime soon for those who have really, really suffered because of violent, careless, weaponized operation of motor vehicles.
Instead, pedestrians, I beg you to stay vigilant yourself!
The cars won’t stop … The drivers may not even being looking … so stay vigilant until you’re hopefully safely able to find your way back home …
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You nailed it!
Where are the Westport police? They need to ticket the drivers you describe aggressively and continuously. Ticket fines not a problem for some? How about license suspension once the points rack up? Westport has a reputation for allowing this lawless and dangerous behavior, and that needs to change.
I am so happy to support this publication of local Westport news. That said, the depiction of local cyclists as “idiot bikers” with “comical tight pants” and living out “weird French & Italian athletic fantasies” seemed gratuitously hurtful and damaging in an opinion piece about reckless driving and properly honoring its victims.
I am a cyclist and part of the local Y tri club. I’m also a mom to 3 young kids. I and every local cyclist I know also fall in the other camp for which you feel more sympathy – “walkers, families trying to amble….the rest of us trying to shop, work…” We are also painfully aware of several cyclist deaths due to reckless driving, and there is always a quiet sense of relief when a vehicle passes us without incident. Of course, I can’t speak for reckless cycling incidents and hope they are the exception rather than the rule in Westport, but widely disseminating the portrayal of “idiot cyclists” wearing “comical tight pants” can only validate any views among your readership that local cyclists’ lives are not as valuable as everyone else’s. It can only embolden road rage against cyclists among your readership and put further lives in danger.
If safety habits among cyclists is an issue, let’s address that constructively — not by mocking us and endangering our lives gratuitously.